Lighting grill assembly for vehicle and method of manufacturing the same

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are a lighting grill assembly for a vehicle and a method of manufacturing the same, the lighting grill assembly for a vehicle a grill cover, a black paint portion painted using a black paint on a rear surface of the grill cover, and the black paint portion forming a light transmitting portion through which light passes by removing a part of the painted black paint, an inner lens spaced apart from the rear surface of the grill cover in a rearward direction, and a metal layer is deposited on a surface of the inner lens, and a light source configured to radiate light from a rear of the inner lens.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No.17/873,554 filed on Jul. 26, 2022, which claim benefit under 35 USC §119(a) of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2021-0162911, filed in theKorean Intellectual Property Office on Nov. 24, 2021, the entiredisclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference for allpurposes.

BACKGROUND 1. Field

Disclosed are a lighting grill assembly for a vehicle and a method ofmanufacturing the same, and more specifically, to a lighting grillassembly for a vehicle, which is mounted on a front surface of a vehicleto emit light to the outside, and a method of manufacturing the same.

2. Description of Related Art

In conventional internal combustion engine vehicles, a grill mounted ona front surface of a vehicle serves to cool an engine and a radiator byintroducing air into an engine room. In electrified vehicles such aselectric vehicles, fuel cell vehicles, and the like that have beendeveloped recently, there is a problem that the efficiency of the grilldecreases because there is no need to separately install a coolingdevice in the engine room.

As described above, as the direction of the development is changed frominternal combustion engine vehicles to electrified vehicles, a new typeof grill is being developed in which modeling elements, emblems, lightemitting diodes (LEDs), and the like are disposed on the front of avehicle to serve a function other than that of the conventional grill.In other words, as a lighting grill with an LED lighting functionapplied to the grill mounted on the front surface of the vehicle isdeveloped, a design aspect other than a cooling function of theconventional grill is emphasized, and the lighting grill is alsodeveloped as a means for displaying various functions such as anautonomous traveling mode, an electric vehicle charging mode, a welcomelight function, and a sound beat display.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subjectmatter.

In one general aspect, there is provided a lighting grill assembly for avehicle, the lighting grill assembly including a grill cover, a blackpaint portion painted using a black paint on a rear surface of the grillcover, and the black paint portion forming a light transmitting portionthrough which light passes by removing a part of the painted blackpaint, an inner lens spaced apart from the rear surface of the grillcover in a rearward direction, and a metal layer is deposited on asurface of the inner lens, and a light source configured to radiatelight from a rear of the inner lens.

The lighting grill assembly may include a clear paint portion paintedusing a clear paint on the rear surface of the grill cover on which theblack paint portion is formed.

The lighting grill assembly may include a diffusion paint portion ispainted, using a diffusion paint, on a rear surface of the inner lens.

A fine pattern portion may be formed on the metal layer, the finepattern portion corresponding to a rear of the light transmittingportion.

The light transmitting portion and the fine pattern portion may beformed by removing the painted black paint and the deposited metal layerby laser etching.

The lighting grill assembly may include a grill housing coupled to therear surface of the grill cover, and a plurality of light sources beinginstalled in the grill housing, and a light source installation grooveextending in a rearward direction may be formed in the grill housing,and each of the of the plurality of light sources are installed in thelight source installation groove. In another general aspect, there isprovided a method of manufacturing a lighting grill assembly for avehicle, the method including painting a black paint on a rear surfaceof a grill cover, forming a light transmitting portion through whichlight passes by removing a part of the black paint, disposing an innerlens to be spaced apart from the rear surface of the grill cover in arearward direction, depositing a metal layer on a surface of the innerlens, and radiating light toward the grill cover by installing a lightsource behind the inner lens.

The method may include painting a clear paint on the rear surface of thegrill cover on which the black paint is painted.

The method may include painting a diffusion paint on a rear surface ofthe inner lens.

The method may include forming a fine pattern portion on the metal layercorresponding to a rear of the light transmitting portion.

Other features and aspects will be apparent from the following detaileddescription, the drawings, and the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a lighting grill assemblyfor a vehicle according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing the lighting grill assembly for a vehicleaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 3 to 6 are views sequentially showing manufacturing of thelighting grill assembly for a vehicle according to one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a method of manufacturing the lightinggrill assembly for a vehicle according to one embodiment of the presentinvention.

Throughout the drawings and the detailed description, unless otherwisedescribed or provided, the same drawing reference numerals will beunderstood to refer to the same elements, features, and structures. Thedrawings may not be to scale, and the relative size, proportions, anddepiction of elements in the drawings may be exaggerated for clarity,illustration, and convenience.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description is provided to assist the reader ingaining a comprehensive understanding of the methods, apparatuses,and/or systems described herein. However, various changes,modifications, and equivalents of the methods, apparatuses, and/orsystems described herein will be apparent after an understanding of thedisclosure of this application. For example, the sequences of operationsdescribed herein are merely examples, and are not limited to those setforth herein, but may be changed as will be apparent after anunderstanding of the disclosure of this application, with the exceptionof operations necessarily occurring in a certain order.

The features described herein may be embodied in different forms and arenot to be construed as being limited to the examples described herein.Rather, the examples described herein have been provided merely toillustrate some of the many possible ways of implementing the methods,apparatuses, and/or systems described herein that will be apparent afteran understanding of the disclosure of this application.

Throughout the specification, when a component is described as being“connected to,” or “coupled to” another component, it may be directly“connected to,” or “coupled to” the other component, or there may be oneor more other components intervening therebetween. In contrast, when anelement is described as being “directly connected to,” or “directlycoupled to” another element, there can be no other elements interveningtherebetween.

The terminology used herein is for describing various examples only andis not to be used to limit the disclosure. The articles “a,” “an,” and“the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless thecontext clearly indicates otherwise. The terms “comprises,” “includes,”and “has” specify the presence of stated features, numbers, operations,members, elements, and/or combinations thereof, but do not preclude thepresence or addition of one or more other features, numbers, operations,members, elements, and/or combinations thereof.

Although terms such as “first,” “second,” and “third,” A, B, C, (a),(b), (c), or the like may be used herein to describe various members,components, regions, layers, or sections, these members, components,regions, layers, or sections are not to be limited by these terms.Rather, these terms are only used to distinguish one member, component,region, layer, or section from another member, component, region, layer,or section. Thus, a first member, component, region, layer, or sectionreferred to in the examples described herein may also be referred to asa second member, component, region, layer, or section without departingfrom the teachings of the examples.

Hereinafter, a lighting grill assembly for a vehicle according to oneembodiment of the present invention will be described in detail withreference to the accompanying drawings, and in describing one embodimentwith reference to the accompanying drawings, the same or correspondingcomponents are denoted by the same reference numbers and overlappingdescriptions thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a lighting grill assemblyfor a vehicle according to one embodiment of the present invention, andFIG. 2 is a side view showing the lighting grill assembly for a vehicleaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

Accordingly, as shown in the drawings, the lighting grill assembly for avehicle according to one embodiment of the present invention includes agrill cover 10, a black paint portion 20, an inner lens 40, a grillhousing 50, and a light source 56.

The grill cover 10 forms a front exterior of the lighting grillassembly, and may be made of, for example, a transparent material suchas polycarbonate (PC). The grill cover 10 has a plate shape that iselongated approximately in a left-right direction to occupy asignificant portion of the front surface of a vehicle.

The black paint portion 20 is painted on a rear surface of the grillcover 10 with a black paint. The black paint portion 20 is a portionformed for masking and is a portion in which light radiated from thelight source 56 is not transmitted and is shielded.

The black paint portion 20 is painted over the entire rear surface ofthe grill cover 10, and in this embodiment, a part of the black paintportion 20 is removed to form a light transmitting portion 22 throughwhich light passes. The light transmitting portion 22 is a portionthrough which the light passing through a fine pattern portion 44 to bedescribed below passes, and is a portion from which a lighting designpattern formed by the fine pattern portion 44 is substantially emittedto the outside. To this end, the light transmitting portion 22 may beformed, for example, in various shapes such as a rectangle, a circle,and the like having a predetermined area. A plurality of lighttransmitting portions 22 may be formed in a plurality of columns androws with respect to the grill cover 10, and the plurality of lighttransmitting portions 22 may also be irregularly formed according to adesign pattern.

Meanwhile, the black paint portion 20 painted to form the lighttransmitting portion 22 may be removed, for example, by laser etching,but the present invention is not limited thereto, and various methods ofremoving the black paint portion 20 may be used.

A clear paint portion 30 on which a clear paint is painted is formed onthe rear surface of the grill cover 10 on which the black paint portion20 is formed. When the black paint portion 20 is removed by the laseretching after the black paint portion 20 is painted, a removed surfaceof the grill cover 10 may be formed to be opaque, and scratches mayoccur on the surface. Accordingly, in this embodiment, by forming theclear paint portion 30 on the rear surface of the grill cover 10 and thesurface of the black paint portion 20, it is possible to protect anobject to be painted and an internal coating film from externalenvironments. In addition, the clear paint portion 30 is formed with aconstant paint film thickness when painted, and secures gloss andhardness, so that it is possible to improve the color (transparency)quality of the product.

Next, the inner lens 40 is disposed to be spaced apart from the rear ofthe grill cover 10 in a rearward direction. The inner lens 40 is formedin a shape corresponding to the rear surface of the grill cover 10, anda metal layer 42 is deposited on the surface thereof. Various metalssuch as aluminum and the like may be deposited on the metal layer 42. Inthis embodiment, when the metal layer 42 is deposited on the surface ofthe inner lens 40, the light radiated from the light source 56 may beemitted to the outside through the metal layer 42, thereby increasingthe lighting effect.

In addition, as described above, the inner lens 40 is disposed to bespaced apart from the rear surface of the grill cover 10 in a rearwarddirection, and the metal layer 42 is not directly deposited on the rearsurface of the grill cover 10, so that it is possible to improve thequality of the product. More specifically, for example, when the metallayer 42 is directly deposited on the black paint portion 20, a defectmay occur at a boundary with the black paint portion 20 after the metallayer 42 is partially removed. However, according to this embodiment,the black paint portion 20 and the metal layer 42 are separated fromeach other to perform the operation, thereby fundamentally preventingthe occurrence of a problem due to their overlapping (chemical reactionbetween the paints).

A part of the metal layer 42 is removed by the laser etching as in theabove-described light transmitting portion 22 to form the fine patternportion 44. The fine pattern portion 44 is a portion in which thelighting design emitted to the outside is substantially formed, andvarious design patterns capable of revealing the brand and identity of avehicle may be applied.

As described above, since the metal layer 42 is deposited on the innerlens 40 and then the fine pattern portion 44 is formed, it is possibleto improve a luminance value of the light source 56, thereby improvingthe performance and quality of the product.

A diffusion paint portion 46 to which a diffusion paint material ispainted is formed on a rear surface of the inner lens 40. For example,when a light emitting diode (LED) itself used as the light source 56 isseen as a hot spot, the quality of the product is degraded, and thus thediffusion paint portion 46 serves to diffuse light radiated from the LEDso as not to look like a hot spot. In other words, the light passingthrough the diffusion paint portion 46 is diffused, thereby making thelight appear to spread gently from the outside as a whole.

A silicone-based resin having excellent molecular lubricity andproperties as a light diffusion medium may be used as a base resin ofthe diffusion paint. In addition, a solvent included in the diffusionpaint may be enamel thinner, urethane thinner, lacquer thinner, etc. Aninorganic pigment of a color material included in the diffusion paintmay be made of any one or more of bengala, vermilion, cadmium red,chrome yellow, ocher, cadmium yellow, prussian blue, and cobalt bluedepending on the color. When such an inorganic pigment is included, itis possible to obtain a paint having a desired light diffusionperformance even with a long lifespan.

Next, the grill housing 50 may be disposed behind the inner lens 40, andthe grill housing 50 may be coupled to the rear surface of the grillcover 10. The grill housing 50 is a portion provided for theinstallation of a substrate 54 and the light source 56, and the grillhousing 50 is also formed in a shape corresponding to the shape of thegrill cover 10 and has a plate shape that is approximately elongated ina left-right direction.

In this embodiment, a light source installation groove 52 is formed inthe grill housing 50 to be recessed in a rearward direction. The lightsource installation groove 52 is formed by bending the rear surface ofthe grill housing 50 in a rearward direction and extends to have apredetermined depth in the rearward direction.

Each of the substrate 54 and the light source 56 may be installed in thelight source installation groove 52, and a plurality of light sourceinstallation grooves 52 may be arranged in columns and rows in the grillhousing 50. As described above, since the light source installationgroove 52 extends to have the predetermined depth, and the substrate 54and the light source 56 are installed on the innermost inner surface ofthe light source installation groove 52, a certain distance is securedbetween the light source 56 and the inner lens 40. When the distancebetween the light source 56 and the inner lens 40 is too close, thelight radiated to the outside may look like a hot spot without spreadingto a predetermined area, so that in order to prevent the above, in thisembodiment, the light source 56 is installed on the inner surface of thelight source installation groove 52.

In addition, since the light source installation grooves 52 are providedindependently of each other without interfering with each other, thelight radiated from the light sources 56 installed in each of the lightsource installation grooves 52 does not interfere with each other. Forexample, there is a problem that when wavelengths of light radiated fromeach light source 56 are different, the lights overlap each other whenthe lights are radiated in a state in which the light source 56 is notinstalled in the light source installation groove 52, and in thisembodiment, the light source installation grooves 52 are providedindependently of each other so that the lights do not overlap eachother.

Hereinafter, a method of manufacturing the lighting grill assembly for avehicle according to one embodiment of the present invention will bedescribed with reference to FIGS. 3 to 7 . FIGS. 3 to 6 are viewssequentially showing manufacturing of a lighting grill assembly for avehicle according to one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7is a flowchart showing a method of manufacturing the lighting grillassembly for a vehicle according to one embodiment of the presentinvention.

Referring to FIG. 3 , a black paint is painted on a rear surface of agrill cover 10 (S10). The black paint is painted to mask the rearsurface of the grill cover 10, and shields the light radiated from alight source 56 to prevent transmission.

Referring to FIG. 4 , some of the painted black paint is removed to forma light transmitting portion 22 through which light passes (S20). Here,the painted black paint may be removed by a method such as laseretching, and the light transmitting portion 22 is a portion throughwhich the light passing through a fine pattern portion 44 passes to beemitted to the outside.

Referring to FIG. 5 , a clear paint is painted on the rear surface ofthe grill cover 10 on which the black paint is painted to form a clearpaint portion 30. The clear paint portion 30 protects an object to bepainted and an internal paint film from the external environments, isformed with a constant paint film thickness when painted, and securesgloss and hardness, thereby improving the color (transparency) qualityof the product.

Referring to FIG. 6 , an inner lens 40 is disposed to be spaced apartfrom the rear surface of the grill cover in a rearward direction, and ametal layer 42 is deposited on the surface of the inner lens 40 (S30).As described above, when the metal layer 42 is deposited on the innerlens 40 and then the fine pattern portion 44 is formed, it is possibleto improve a luminance value of the light source 56, thereby improvingthe performance and quality of the product.

Next, the light source 56 is installed behind the inner lens 40 toradiate light toward the grill cover 10 (S40). The light radiated fromthe light source 56 is emitted to the outside through the fine patternportion 44 and the light transmitting portion 22, and at this point, thelight may pass through the fine pattern portion 44 on which the metallayer 42 is deposited, thereby improving the luminance value andcreating various lighting designs.

According to an embodiment, it is possible to display design patterns towhich various shapes and sizes are applied to a rear surface of a grillcover through a light source, thereby making the design of a vehiclemore beautiful.

In addition, an embodiment makes it possible to have a metal layerdisposed to be spaced apart from a rear surface of a grill cover to emitlight through the metal layer, thereby differentiating the exteriordesign of a vehicle.

In addition, an embodiment is directed to providing a lighting grillassembly for a vehicle, which displays design patterns to which variousshapes and sizes are applied to a rear surface of a grill cover througha light source, thereby making the design of a vehicle more beautiful,and a method of manufacturing the same.

In addition, an embodiment is directed to providing a lighting grillassembly for a vehicle, which has a metal layer disposed to be spacedapart from a rear surface of a grill cover to emit light through themetal layer, thereby differentiating an exterior design of a vehicle,and a method of manufacturing the same.

While this disclosure includes specific examples, it will be apparentafter an understanding of the disclosure of this application thatvarious changes in form and details may be made in these exampleswithout departing from the spirit and scope of the claims and theirequivalents. The examples described herein are to be considered in adescriptive sense only, and not for purposes of limitation. Descriptionsof features or aspects in each example are to be considered as beingapplicable to similar features or aspects in other examples. Suitableresults may be achieved if the described techniques are performed in adifferent order, and/or if components in a described system,architecture, device, or circuit are combined in a different manner,and/or replaced or supplemented by other components or theirequivalents.

Therefore, the scope of the disclosure is defined not by the detaileddescription, but by the claims and their equivalents, and all variationswithin the scope of the claims and their equivalents are to be construedas being included in the disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A lighting grill assembly for a vehicle, thelighting grill assembly comprising: a grill cover; a black paintportion, painted using a black paint on at least a portion of onesurface of the grill cover, forming a light transmitting portion throughwhich light passes; an inner lens spaced apart from the one surface ofthe grill cover, and having a metal layer deposited thereon; and a lightsource configured to radiate light toward the inner lens.
 2. Thelighting grill assembly of claim 1, further comprising: a clear paintportion painted using a clear paint on the rear surface of the grillcover on which the black paint portion is formed.
 3. The lighting grillassembly of claim 1, further comprising: a diffusion paint portion ispainted, using a diffusion paint, on a rear surface of the inner lens.4. The lighting grill assembly of claim 1, wherein a fine patternportion is formed on the metal layer, the fine pattern portioncorresponding to a rear of the light transmitting portion.
 5. Thelighting grill assembly of claim 4, wherein the light transmittingportion and the fine pattern portion are formed by removing the paintedblack paint and the deposited metal layer by laser etching.
 6. Thelighting grill assembly of claim 1, further comprising: a grill housingcoupled to the rear surface of the grill cover, and a plurality of lightsources being installed in the grill housing; and a light sourceinstallation groove extending in a rearward direction is formed in thegrill housing, and each of the of the plurality of light sources areinstalled in the light source installation groove.